Why I picked the Asheville Marathon - 36ish weeks to go
Running strictly on road is such a completely different vibe than trail running. It’s more impact on your feet, knees, and hips, but your pace tends to be quicker as you don’t have to slow down to avoid rocks, water crossings, limbs, or other obstacles, like bears (only partially kidding). You get to look up a lot more during road training too, which is nice.
I’ve completed two road marathons (26.2 miles):
The Flying Pig in Cincinnati, OH in 2013 (time of 5:44)
The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Marathon in 2017 (time of 5:18)
Although I improved my time by close to 30 minutes in 2017 and I was proud of myself for finishing both races, I didn’t feel very strong during either and I wasn’t super pleased with my overall times. I had to walk for pretty long stretches during both and I think after the 2017 race, I kind of threw in the towel on doing another road marathon.
Both medals were freaking huge though, which was something I secretly loved at the time.
Since close to a decade has passed and my running experience has grown and I have achieved things that I would never have expected, I figured tacking on a road marathon into this giant goal would be a great mid-way challenge.
For years I’ve used a website called Running In The USA to find road races. I browsed through their listings of marathons that were taking place relatively near me, although in the back of my head, I knew the Asheville Marathon would be the one I would most likely choose. However, this tools is extremely helpful when looking for any type of road race (5Ks, 10Ks, halves, etc) so I figured I share it.
So, let’s talk about the Asheville Marathon! It takes place on March 15th, 2025, which not only falls almost perfectly into the timing of when I need to start Phase 3 (100 mile training), but this race is also personally important to me. And it’s sponsored by New Belgium Brewing this year and finishes at their beautiful brewery, which is also a favorite of mine.
As a local, I’ve completed the Asheville Half Marathon three times, all with slightly different course adjustments:
2019 - Time of 1:57:03 (I didn’t have Strava back then, so no data to share, but I remember having to run up a huge hill at mile 10 and that sucked)
2023 - Time of 2:16:35 (Elevation gain of only 165ft but super freaking cold and I had some bad IT band pain in my right knee.)
2024 - Time of 1:58:26 (Elevation gain of 580ft and lucked out with perfect weather and really pushed myself during this one.)
This year’s race is even more special as the old route used to run along the French Broad River greenways and the River Arts District, which were absolutely ravaged during Hurricane Helene. The race organizers updated their course and although there’s now a bit more elevation gain since we are going to run through more parts of downtown proper, they still plan on utilizing parts of the greenway.
I haven’t ran on the greenway since the Hurricane at the end of September, which is crazy as this stretch of Asheville used to be one of my most visited training areas. There are two long paved stretches of very flat miles that run up and then back along the French Broad River. It was a highly visited area and since it connected to a dog park, multiple put-ins for kayaks/tubes, breweries, and art galleries. It also connected to West Asheville as well as pushing into the Hominy Creek area, making it easy to string together 10+ miles of non-challenging running. It had been my go-to training area for my long runs for over 7 years.
I know I keep talking about it in past tense. It’s still technically there and I have heard from others that it is usable right now but I think I just haven’t had the heart to actually see the damage. I’ve only driven a small section of that area and seeing one of my favorite riverside dive bars completely gone from its’ foundation (except the remnants of one of their tiki bars outside), was really hard to see.
I’m hoping that I will eventually get back out there before race day. It would probably be good for me, just like finally trail running again at Bent Creek Experimental Forest has been very therapeutic.
Either way, I’m stoked to be registered for this Marathon and am very much looking forward to running it alongside both locals and visitors in March. I’ll discuss which marathon training plan I’m using in my next post!